Hold up.
They won 4.5 million from the city in 2013 and this dude doesn't even get prosecuted?!
Courtroom erupts after CPD detective found innocent in fatal shooting of unarmed woman
Posted: 04/20/2015, 01:55pm | Stefano Esposito
A Cook County judge on Monday found a Chicago police officer not guilty on charges he fatally shot an unarmed woman.
In an unusual move, Judge Dennis Porter granted a defense motion for a directed verdict, meaning he found police officer Dante Servin not guilty without Servin even having to put on a defense.
Servin had been charged with involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and reckless discharge of a firearm — but Porter, in issuing his verdict, said Servin’s conduct was “beyond reckless” in the March 2012 shooting of Rekia Boyd. Therefore, “it would be improper to allow the trial to continue given the total failure” to prove recklessness, which was key to all three charges. “The evidence does not support the charges on which the defendant is being tried.”
Rekia Boyd died after being shot by CPD officer Dante Servin. | Provided
The officer’s decision to discharge his firearm, Porter said, “was an intentional act.”
Porter seemed to know his decision would be controversial.
“This is not a place for emotion,” he said before reading his verdict. “This is a place for reasoned decisions.”
Even so, as soon as the verdict was read, the courtroom exploded.
“This motherf—– killed my sister,” yelled Martinez Sutton, one of Boyd’s brothers, who was quickly surrounded by courtroom deputies. “Do you want me to be quiet?”
Outside the courtroom, Sutton said: “I was promised that this cop would go down.”
Later, as Servin left the courthouse, he was surrounded by police officers as protesters shouted “F—— murderer!” at him.
Servin was an off-duty Chicago Police detective in March 2012 when he fatally shot Boyd, 22, and injured her friend Antonio Cross after confronting them and two others during a raucous gathering by his home near Douglas Park.
Servin’s attorneys had said Cross reached into his waistband, pretending he had a weapon and charged toward the officer. Earlier in the trial, a Chicago Police detective and Cook County prosecutor had testified that Servin told them he opened fire because he believed he saw a gun pointed at him.
“He thought for sure he was going to get shot,” lead Detective Ed Heerdt had said.
Boyd died after one of the five bullets from Servin’s unregistered handgun pierced the left side of her head. Servin has maintained that he used his Glock only because he felt threatened when he confronted the group about the noise.
Minutes before he shot Boyd and wounded Cross in the hand, Servin, now 46, had called 911 to complain about crowds of people “drinking, fighting and smoking drugs” near his home.
Boyd’s mother, Angela Helton, who received a $4.5 million settlement with the city, had complained to reporters earlier in the trial, which started April 9, about what she called Servin’s constant “smirk” during the court proceedings.
One of Servin’s defense attorneys, Darren O’Brien, praised the judge’s ruling.
“The fact is the evidence did not support the charges in the case,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien said he believes double jeopardy applies and his client cannot be retried for the death of Boyd.
